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Oxfam to pursue recovery of £29,000

OXFAM has said it will try to get back the £29,000 “golden handshake” given to fraudster Edward McKenzie-Green when he left the charity.

McKenzie-Green, 34, from Chipping Norton, was jailed for two years and five months on Tuesday after admitting to stealing more than £64,000 while he worked as the charity’s head of counter-fraud between February and November 2011, when he resigned.

The Oxford Mail reported yesterday that the international aid charity was hoping to get back the £64,612.58 McKenzie-Green stole.

But yesterday charity spokeswoman Christina Corbett confirmed it would also try to get back the money given to the fraudster when he resigned.

She said: “We will consider civil action to claim back the £29k and the other money stolen.”

The father-of-one had been stealing from the charity at a time when he was investigating misconduct by aid workers following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

He was arrested in April 2012 and had claimed he was the victim of a corrupt conspiracy among senior staff at Oxfam, before he admitted fraud by abuse of position in March this year.